نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 گروه مرتعداری، دانشکده منابع طبیعی و علوم دریایی، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، نور، ایران
2 گروه آبخیزداری، دانشکده منابع طبیعی و علوم دریایی، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، نور، ایران
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
Introduction: Proper rangeland management is crucial for maintaining the sustainability of rangeland ecosystems and preserving vegetation cover. Recently, climate change, overgrazing, and poor management practices have caused both quantitative and qualitative declines in vegetation across many of the country's rangelands. However, due to the vast size of these areas and the limited resources for field monitoring, remote sensing (RS) technology has become an attractive alternative as an accurate and cost-effective tool for tracking vegetation health and assessing treatment impacts. This study was conducted to evaluate how different rangeland management treatments influence vegetation indices through satellite imagery.
Material and methods: This study involved three rangeland management treatments in Chahardangeh, Mazandaran Province: (1) exclusion with restoration, (2) exclusion without restoration, and (3) open grazing. Data were collected monthly from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery from 2019 to 2024. The assessed vegetation indices included NDVI, GNDVI, SAVI, MSAVI, EVI, LAI, and ARVI, all derived using Google Earth Engine. With three sites over six years (72 months), a total of 216 samples were gathered. One-way ANOVA was employed to analyze differences in vegetation indices across treatments.
Results and discussion: The statistical analysis of vegetation indices revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) among various management treatments in most indices. The open grazing treatment showed the lowest vegetation index values compared to the other two treatments. Conversely, the exclusion combined with restoration measures resulted in the highest values across most indices. SAVI, specifically designed for assessing vegetation in arid and semi-arid regions, peaked at 0.19 in the exclusion with restoration treatment. Similarly, NDVI and EVI values were considerably higher in this treatment, indicating denser and healthier vegetation under improved management. Additionally, LAI values demonstrated greater leaf area in exclusion treatments compared to open grazing sites, reflecting the benefits of reduced grazing pressure and ecological restoration. Overall, these results underscore the positive impact of protective management and restoration on rangeland vegetation, highlighting their essential role in the recovery and rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems.
Conclusion: In summary, combining exclusion with restoration practices significantly enhances vegetation indices more than simple exclusion or open grazing alone. This approach can be recommended as an effective management strategy for rehabilitating degraded rangelands. Using remote sensing tools enables ongoing, efficient, and cost-effective monitoring of vegetation changes over time. Furthermore, the study's results can assist natural resource managers in making informed decisions to maximize rangeland use and conservation efforts. Future research should focus on long-term monitoring by integrating field data with ecological modeling to improve the accuracy of tracking rangeland recovery processes.
کلیدواژهها [English]
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